My feelings about what happened with Hornish in NNS isn't that I feel Rodger screwed him, but that Rodger catered his one ride to his Cup drivers. I keep hearing the sponsorship to be blamed for that, but I don't buy it. I firmly believe that Rodger has a great enough relationship with Discount Tire that if he told them he was going to run for the NNS title with either Blaney or Hornish in the 22 that Discount would agree. However, I think Rodger would rather cater to his Cup drivers and make them happy then do what was right. Also for the record, I felt if Rodger was going to run one car full time for the title it should have been Blaney in the car, not Hornish.
Feelings and facts are two different things. Hornish told all who would listen after his recent finishes in Nationwide the he didn't want to be in Nationwide but in cup.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/mo...ooking-for-a-ride-along-with-series-title.ece
He lost his full-time Cup ride with Penske after putting up only eight top-10s with no victories from 2008-10. Hornish dropped to the Nationwide level last season and found his niche.
“It’s not to my liking,” Hornish said. “On the other hand, I understand. I’ve been in this sport long enough to know what’s going on. There are more drivers than seats.
“I want to race next year, and I want to put myself into a good position to further my career. I’m doing everything I can to make that happen.”
That includes touching base with as many teams as possible. The first question often is, “Do you have a sponsor?” Penske has hinted at bringing back Hornish for a Nationwide schedule next year, if he can drum up a sponsor.
http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.co...s-forward-to-new-start-with-joe-gibbs-racing/
Hornish, however, was essentially laid-off from Penske Racing when enough sponsorship dollars couldn’t be found to keep his NNS team going for 2014.
While Hornish could have stayed on with Penske in a different capacity, perhaps as a test driver or another role, when the JGR offer came up, he had to take it.
“I told Roger from the get-go that I was going to do this,” Hornish said. “I told him, ‘I hope you understand where I’m at and all those things.’ After we had an opportunity to talk about it, I feel like he felt much better about it.”
**Looks like he changed his mind about a top 15 cup team going with Petty. Hornish has never been close to a top 15 driver in cup...closer to top 30
“I want to go Cup racing in the future, but I’m only going to do that if I think that it’s with an organization I can run in the top-15 regularly. That means I want to do it with someone I can hopefully get into the Chase with. There are a lot of things that can bias that, but I know that being with an organization like JGR that has great sponsors that tend to be on the car year in and year out, to be with a company like Monster Energy and what they’re brand is … this is the right place for me.”
